Federal prosecutors have filed hate crime charges against the suspected Buffalo supermarket shooter, according to a criminal complaint submitted Wednesday.
Payton Gendron, 18, allegedly shot 13 people May 14 at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Ten people, all of whom were black, were killed.
Gendron harbored racial motivations for his attack, according to the criminal complaint.
Gendron was charged with 10 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, three counts of hate crimes involving bodily injury and attempt to kill, 10 counts of use and discharge of a firearm to commit murder, and three counts of use and discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
Department of Justice has filed multiple federal hate crimes charges against the alleged Buffalo shooter, which carry the potential of the death penalty.
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) June 15, 2022
“Gendron’s motive for the mass shooting was to prevent Black people from replacing white people and eliminating the white race, and to inspire others to commit similar attacks,” the complaint said. (RELATED: Buffalo Shooter’s Personal Diary Is Pretty Clear About His Sources Of Inspiration)
“In the months preceding the attack, Gendron wrote a self-described manifesto containing a detailed plan to shoot and kill Black people at the Tops at 1275 Jefferson Avenue3 using a Bushmaster XM-15 rifle,” prosecutors in the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York wrote.
Included in the manifesto were diagrams of the supermarket where he carried out his attack, discussion of what helmet and body camera he would use during the attack, and explanations of the racial motivations to his crime, according to the complaint.
In the manifesto, Gendron stated that the purpose of the attack was to, “Kill as many blacks as possible.”